Revival
by Koplak from the Equator
Summary: After sacrificing himself, Klaatu disintegrates and considered dead. But Gort rises back with something in its hands. Something that Helen couldn't swallow... A Oneshot.


The last gaze he gave her was poles apart from before, especially compared to the first time they met…in the park…when he was not yet human-like. Now he gave her _that_ gaze; the gaze that was not filled with the same deep ocean or the vast plain tundra. Instead, Helen Benson could feel the spring's warm sun from his eyes. Yet at the same time, the eyes she stared at gave another feeling. Approximately, two other feelings, but Helen never get to know what as the man had dived himself inside the swarm of bugs.

The first step did not feel so hard, not until the matter-eating bugs pushed him aside. Klaatu did not stop nor did he give up the ghost. He had to stop the recycling; he was wrong all along. Ever since the first time he landed on this planet, he had seen viciousness and primitiveness amongst the people. Even one of them shot him while he was not given the time to spoke out his words. When he was shot, one thing dawned on his mind: 'Yes, these people don't deserve this planet.' But one woman approached him, with her—what was called by the Earthlings as eyebrows arched downward to the ends of her face. That was the first emotion he witnessed from an Earthling. Perhaps, he thought, Helen and her step-son, Jacob, were the only ones who gave him emotional expressions. The others were simply poker-faced or mean-looking.

All these emotions seemed so…_alien_ for him. His race was not as complicated as the humans. In fact, human race was the most complicated race he had ever seen. After escaping with the help of Helen, he started to see more of those and was stricken with awe by its picturesque intricacy. The lightning of realization javelined him and his ruthless goal to destroy the Earth. He should have known. Why does he have to be so dense? Not desiring to destroy the beauty, Klaatu changed his mind, like a CD changed its track from the twelfth to the first.

Despite that bugs had infiltrated his humanoid flesh; he kept wading his way to the sphere. He brought this giant one along with the smaller ones with him when he landed; he activated them in the first place; now that it needed to be stopped he should and can stop it.

A gust of swarming insects attacked him from the front. He staggered and nearly fell but with all his might he managed to keep his footing on the ground and stomped to the giant sphere. The ends of his suit was tattered and torn already as well as his trousers and his tie. He could feel his toes poking out of his shoes and socks. His legs were nearly failing as he at last reached the sphere. With the last of his effort, he uttered, "_Klaatu…barada…nikto…_"

The bugs swept him away into dust. The bugs' swarm grew larger and larger…and they rained the grounds. Lifeless, dead, switched off.

The sun shone, the bugs' sparkly appearance reflected the ray inside the tunnel Helen and Jacob were. With sheer amazement, they disengaged their embrace and stood only to see green grasses powdered with the same bugs that nearly gnaw her and her son's flesh. The Earth was saved, more than ninety percent population of the Earth were still alive and well. Conversely, he who cancelled the whole kill-all-humans-and-recycle-the-world cosmic plan was not present. He had to sacrifice himself in order to stop the scheme he conveyed with him.

She knew it. Even the most extraordinary, unusual, rarest being in the universe has this something that Earthlings called 'heart'. Klaatu was just the same; the only things that differ were his plain expression and the way he thinks. By this very second, Helen realized that no matter that you are an Earthling, Martian, or a resident of other planets scattered around the universe, everybody has a heart. Aliens are humans when you get to know them. And every race in the galaxy starts off from being a primitive. Helen felt terrible. She covered her mouth with one of her hands, inaudibly weeping in regret and plain sadness.

"Mom," Jacob called. Helen snapped her eyes; ever since she married Jacob's father, never she heard him call her 'Mom' even just once. This was considered the first record. Jacob pulled her arm to get her attention and pointed at the concaving shape on the ground where the sphere used to land on. "Look!" he exclaimed.

Helen's mind was obliged to believe. The dead matter-eating bugs shifted and pulled into the form they were before they dispersed: a building-sized Cyclops robot. Gort had its hands near its chest, shaping it like a cup. It seemed to be holding something and Helen's guess was right when there was a thin streak of light shining from Gort's hands.

The colossus knelt on one knee and gently descended its hands to the earth. It froze in place and its laser-like eye spotlighted Helen. Helen, half-blinded, stared back at Gort with questions churning in her head. _It wants me,_ Helen thought. She gulped and encouraged herself to stepped closer to Gort's descending hands. Jacob decided to stay back and just watched nervously.

Helen could not hold herself from gasping and covered her mouth like she did earlier after the swarming ended. Gort did not just revive itself, but its operator and master too. However, it revived him into something different. Instead of reviving Klaatu as a man, it revived Klaatu as an infant. Small, harmless infant.

Gently, Helen carried Klaatu to her arms and rocked him. The baby looked at her with eyes that normal baby would not give to an adult. It was as if the baby was trying to say something to Helen. Helen softened her eyes and lightly pecked baby Klaatu's round forehead.

Gort rose to its feet, standing straight. Its feet rose from the ground, levitating it. Helen stepped back to where Jacob was standing. The mother and the step-son witnessed the departure of the colossal robot from Earth to its temporary residence in the moon. Klaatu was alive again and Gort's duty was to protect him and perhaps revive him again like what it did earlier as long Klaatu uttered the safe-word.

Helen urged Jacob to turn around and walked back to find their way home. "Come on, Jacob. You just got yourself a baby brother. And his name is Klaatu."

Jacob nodded and together, they walked back to the half-consumed New York City side-by-side. From now on, they are emotionally parent and child.

* * *

**This is probably the shortest oneshot I've ever written. I mean...it's only 2 MS Word pages! My other oneshots have seven or more pages. Nevertheless, I felt the need of writing this. I got this idea during my morning bath yesterday. _The Day the Earth Stood Still_ was just an ordinary movie until my dad passed away. Last time I watch a movie with my dad was this movie in one of Jakarta's most expensive cinemas. So writing this oneshot brings a lot of memory. I spent more quality time with dad than with mom, so I'm definitely going to miss having those times again.**


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